Friday, May 13, 2011

HP Mallory's books now 99 CENTS!!!!

Hey guys! For the next three days, author HP Mallory has ALL of her books marked down to .99 cents! If you've been looking into getting them, but were holding off, NOW IS THE TIME! I'm a big fan of her Jolie Wilkins series, and I recently finished "Kiss Me, Kill Me," an anthology she was featured in.














Hurry! This is only available for a few more days!












Happy Reading!
~!~ Amanda ~!~

Hops, Jumps, and Blogger Aggravation

So the review I posted yesterday is gone.. I'm hoping they manage to bring it back. I didn't save it anywhere else. Normally I post reviews on here, then copy them into goodreads and Amazon.com, but I was in such a rush I decided to do it later. Argh!

Oh well, onto the hops. :(

Book Blogger Hop
Are you going to BEA and/or Book Blogger Convention this year? Alas, no. I've never been able to go - no money, and it's kind of far to travel for me. However! I will be going to the Reader/Author Get Together put on my Lori Foster - mainly because it's only 50 bucks AND it's about 20 minutes from where I live. I'm excited. I had such a great time last year, and this time around I will know even more authors visiting!


The Blogger Apocalypse made me a little emotional. What is the most emotional scene in a book you've read lately? That would probably be the crash and the ending of "If I Stay" by Gayle Forman. I'm eagerly anticipating reading the sequel!! I also got a little emotional at the end of "Hard Bitten" by Chloe Neill.

All that said - Hello! My name is Amanda, I'm 23, and I work in a library. I'm currently in a musical ("Urinetown"), and the performances start on the 19th, so I'm heading into heavy, long rehearsals. I'm excited to get it over with at this point... but I know I'll totally miss it when it's over. That said, posts will be a bit spotty until it's over, but I'm doing my best to have a post at least 4 times a week!
You can find my Goodreads page and Twitter account links on the lefthand sidebar, and my blogger button on the right sidebar, if you're so inclined.

Happy Reading!
~!~ Amanda ~!~

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Whatcha Got Wednesday #28 and more general updateyness!

Welcome to another edition of Whatcha Got Wednesday - my own little weekly meme where I share what I received or bought within the last week. I don't do this to brag, but to showcase some reads that I might not get to in a while (due to my huge TBR pile), or I will be reviewing elsewhere - which is the case with my Romance Reviews Today books.

So busy!! And I'm currently in the middle of a book I need to have read (for work, btw) by tonight. Actually, "in the middle" is quite a bit of an overstatement.. So I'm afraid this post will be a little hurried.

First up:
FOR REVIEW:
"A Courtesan's Guide to Getting Your Man" by Susan Donovan and Celeste Bradley. Thanks to the publisher, St. Martin's, for this one!












BOUGHT:
"Hush" by Cherry Adair. I've heard this was a good one, and Walmart had it for a good price. It looks like a thrillride, which.. well, I don't need that at the moment because my life is a bit of a thrillride, but I might when all this excitement is over!











"The Unbearable Lightness of Dragons" by Katie MacAlister. Love this author, and I definitely love Baltic. I'm supposed to be joining a special author chat thingie this weekend - hence why I had to read this book NOW.. there will be spoilers in abudance in the chatroom.




So now for general updateyness: Next week is the show! Which means within the next couple days, I'll switch from rehearsals four times a week to rehearsal every night. We're doing good, we've already had a full run of the show, and man were we tired afterwards. So even more of my time will be gone. I'm trying to keep up, and posting at least once a day every Monday through Saturday, but I'm not sure how well that's going to go next week. I will try my best, however.

Happy Reading!
~!~ Amanda ~!~

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Here be dragons! REVIEW: "The Unbearable Lightness of Dragons" by Katie MacAlister

The Unbearable Lightness of Dragons: A Novel of the Light Dragons Why this book?: I had to move this up the reading queue due to an author event thingie this weekend, where there will be spoilers of this book.

Type: Here Be Dragons, Series, Favorite Authors, He-man Dragons, Wyverns, Mates, War

WARNING: There are NO spoilers of this book in the review, HOWEVER - this review is written with the mindset of you (the reader) having already read book one, "Love in the Time of Dragons."
From the back of the book: Ysolde de Bouchier is a woman beset with trials. The dragon part of her, which was buried deep for centuries, is still making itself known, but in ways that just don't make sense. She's continuing to have visions, but now they involve events she wasn't present to witness.

As if that isn't enough, she's caught up in a tangled web of plans that seems to grow more complex every day. Not only does she have to work out peace between her light dragon mate, Baltic, and the weyr; she also has to free his friend, convince an archimage to life the spell controlling her magic, figure out what it is that the First Dragon expects her to do, rescue a half-dragon damsel who's in over her head, and once and for all clear Baltic's name of murder charges that continue to plague him.

No one told Ysolde that dragon love would be so hard....


Review: Oh, I do so love Baltic. If you want a hero wounded by his past, accepting of the dirt and accusations people throw at him - Baltic is your man - er... Dragon. The relationship between him and Ysolde/Tully is a unique one, since they were mates in the past, then resurrected, and managed to find each other again. I love Baltic's sense of humor, and how, despite being such a tough guy and heralded as a murderous lunatic, he has no problem telling Ysolde exactly how he feels about her, or laughing at her antics. And I'll say it, my heart breaks a little every time he mentions how he fought to find a way to bring Ysolde back after he was resurrected, because he couldn't bear living without her.

This book isn't as quick and easy as some of Katie MacAlister's books usually are. Many of her previous novels can be picked up with no problem, but the Light Dragon books use so much of what has previously happened in the Dragon world that someone could easily get lost. And even more so, Ysolde is occasionally pulled into her visions/memories, not just as herself in them, but as a voyeur of whatever is going on. It can get confusing, with Ysolde talking to someone in the present, then suddenly in the past - I had to re-read some passages a couple times to really understand what was going on.

Recommendation: People who enjoy fun, humorous, and strangely epic series should definitely check out Katie MacAlister's dragon series. But be sure to read the full series to understand what's going on - this book can be a doozy without all the prior knowledge.

Cover Loving: Oh my, Katie MacAlister does have the best yummy man covers.

Final: FOUR out of FIVE. Good, as expected. Katie Mac writes some wonderful fiction.

Happy Reading!
~!~ Amanda ~!~

Monday, May 9, 2011

GIVEAWAY: Two copies of "Book of Lost Souls" by Michelle Muto!!!

*****************************GIVEAWAY CLOSED, thank you!*************************

Please welcome author Michelle Muto! Michelle is here as part of her Book Lovin' Bitches blog tour, and she's generously offered TWO copies of her novel "The Book of Lost Souls!"

The Book of Lost Souls About the book: When teen witch Ivy MacTavish changes a lizard into her date for a Halloween dance, everything turns to chaos. And when no one is powerful enough to transform him back except Ivy, it sparks the rumor: Like father, like daughter. Ivy has heard it all before – that her father, who left when she was seven – was involved with the darkest of magic.



Making the rumors worse, someone uses an evil spell book to bring back two of history’s most nefarious killers. Ivy’s got a simple plan to set things right: find the real dark spell caster, steal the book, and reverse the spell. No problem! But she’ll have to deal with something more dangerous than murderous spirits that want her and her friends dead: the school’s resident bad boy and hotter-than-brimstone demon, Nick Marcelli. Nick’s offering Ivy more than his help with recovering the missing book – he’s offering her a way to ditch her scaly reputation as a lizard-lover. Demons are about as hard to handle as black magic, and as Ivy soon discovers, it’s going to take more than a lot of luck and a little charm if she wants to survive long enough to clear her status as a dark witch, get a warm-blooded boyfriend, and have her former date back to eating meal worms before the week’s end.
About the author: Writer of urban fantasy, the paranormal, and all things eerie and curious. Lover of scary books and funny movies, sports cars, chocolate, and changes of season. Owned by two incredible dogs and a MacBook. Author, wife, sister, and MS certified IT geek.


Michelle's website.
Twitter: @MichelleMuto
Contact Michelle.

Giveaway RULES and GUIDELINES:
~ Leave a comment to enter.
~ You MUST include your email in your comment ( example: youremail AT site DOT com )
~ Contest ENDS 5/19 at 11:59 PM EST. Winners announced Friday morning, 5/20.
~ Open internationally.
~ You must be at least 13 years old to enter.
~ Novel Addiction is not responsible for any winnings lost in the mail or authors failing to deliver the prizes.

Thank you so much for visiting, Michelle! Make sure to follow Michelle as she continues her blog tour - you can find the schedule and links here.




Happy Reading!
~!~ Amanda ~!~